America's Most Sports-Crazed Cities

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What makes a city’s sports fans legendary: their sheer numbers,
their loyalty, or perhaps even their anguish?

For Linda Beltran, a baseball enthusiast, it’s the sportsmanship.
The D.C.-based hotel exec attended Game 3 of the 2011 World
Series, wearing an Albert Pujols Cardinal jersey. “While I was
heckled by a few drunk Texas Rangers fans, the rest were showing
that ‘Texas hospitality,’ going so far as to apologize for their
brethren’s behavior.”

That wasn’t the case in Philadelphia, Beltran says, where the
infamous fans harassed her more vividly for her jersey choice.
Still, you can’t argue with either city’s passion—which is why
both Philly and Dallas made the top 10 of sports-crazed cities,
according to Travel + Leisure readers.

In this year’s America’s Favorite Cities survey, readers voted on
travel-related categories in 35 big cities, such as the best
hotels, street food, and reliable wireless coverage. For some
travelers, however, playoffs, bowl games, and even stadium tours
are the stuff of great vacations. (Full disclosure: a few
sports-oriented places weren’t part of the general Travel +
Leisure survey, such as Detroit, Indianapolis, and World
Series champs St. Louis.)

With teams using more than 100 unique apparatuses to launch globular projectiles a half-mile or more, the 27th annual World Championship Punkin Chunkin event is our pick as November’s Weird Festival of the Month.

For each of America’s most sports-crazed cities, we’ve
highlighted a landmark, museum, or experience that lets fans tap
into the local fervor—whether that’s a lesser-known team, a
historic stadium, or a bar owned by a local sports hero. In
Chicago, for instance, you can enjoy the city’s legendary
pizza while reliving Blackhawks history in one restaurant; in
Austin you can rent a bike from a shop owned by Lance Armstrong.

Ironically, though, some of the biggest winners in the sports
survey were not the homes of winning teams, implying that
“sports-crazed” does not always equal happy fans. Then there’s
Boston, which has won seven championships in 11 years but
couldn’t clinch the No. 1 title in our survey.

“I’ve actually noticed that Boston fans have become slightly less
passionate, perhaps due to their success,” says Beantown native
Andrew Schrage, who now edits personal finance site MoneyCrashers in Chicago. “It’s become
easier to get tickets to games, and the competitive attitude
has dwindled a little bit.”

But in the Windy City? “The frustration has definitely risen,
especially with Cubs fans,” he says. “They’re incredibly
passionate.”

The heart of this Tennessee city belongs to its basketball teams:
the Grizzlies and the University of Memphis Tigers. Before games,
you can see fans in team colors packing the bars and restaurants
along Beale Street. That’s also a great spot to experience the
city’s highest ranked qualities:
music, which ranked No. 10, and the fabulous
barbecue, which came in at No. 2.